This invention relates to the field of devices for assisting the transfer of patients unable to move themselves.
It has been the usual practice to shift a patient, for example, between a transporting stretcher and operating table by two or more attendants partially lifting the patient and sliding the patient from one support to another. Some injuries, notably neck and back injuries, can be aggravated during such shifting. Also, the obtaining of X-rays to determine the extent of such injuries necessitates additional shifting of the patient with increased risk of injury aggravation by such movement.
In the past, ambulances have been equipped with wooden "back boards" for neck and back injuries to which the injured person is strapped to prevent undesired movement that may aggravate the injury. Such "back boards" are in reality a form of a stretcher and not an attendant aid for shifting an injured patient from the ground to a stretcher or between a stretcher and the operating table. Also, such wooden "back boards" were relatively expensive and unwieldy and, significantly, of no benefit in transporting a patient from a horizontal stretcher to an operating table.